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My Fave 5 from Friday Night Smackdown!

This week’s episode of Previously recorded Friday Night Smackdown was quite solid. I wouldn’t say it was spectacular but it did the basics very well and continued this puzzling trend of actually having good, honest wrestling in WWE. Thumbs up from me! Here are the five guys and gals that caught my attention the most this week. I hope you enjoy. Feel free to send in your Fave 5 in a comment below this post!

Sheamus: It’s surprisingly to see this name on the list I’m sure, but it’s true. I enjoyed the Irishman’s work for the first time in several months. I’m bored of this whole feud with Sandow and Cody, but then again I’ve been bored with everything they’ve put him in for around a year now. However, this match with Cody Rhodes was very good. He came out looking great. The match contained some exciting and unique exchanges. It wasn’t just all of his generic power moves. Something seemed different. I know Cody is a great athlete and can have a great match with anyone, but I feel Sheamus actually deserves some credit for once. Rhodes tapped out to the Texas Cloverleaf after a particularly fluid interchange. You don’t see that match ending from the Celtic Warrior every week!

AJ Lee: AJ was part of another very solid Divas match with Natalya. It seems WWE are actually on a good wrestling hype lately, and Steph’s influence on the Divas Division is becoming more evident with each show. Amazing submission and striking work from both athletes. AJ got the win with that crazy Black Widow submission thing again. More great ring work from both of these ladies, followed by a hot cat fight backstage between Aksana and Kaitlyn.

Chris Jericho: Instead of facing Heath Slater, Jericho was utilized appropriately this week when he was placed in the ring with Alberto Del Rio. Neither of these guys are spring chickens, but boy can they move! When you have two guys of their calibre in there, you know you could be in for a terrific match, and that’s what this was. Dolph Ziggler came down and attacked Del Rio midway through the bout, meaning he got the DQ win. Jericho then hit Dolph with the Codebreaker, and came out looking great. The match itself was very high paced and entertaining. There was lots of high flying. Alberto was bleeding when he hit Ziggler with another punt to the head. Very viper like! He is so much more effective as a heel! But my point is, as always Chris Jericho was the ever reliable man to have a good match. Still going strong after all these years! Long live Jericho!

Christian: Now for Chris’ former tag-team partner, Christian. It’s so great to see this guy back on Smackdown. However, it was his turn to face a 3MB jobber. He made the best of a very lame situation when he was put in there with Drew McIntyre. He got the win with the Killswitch. He then got on the mic and seemed that he was half way through announcing his desires to go for the World Heavyweight Championship in “one more match” – at least that’s how I interpreted it. However, he was interrupted by The Shield. They ran down the ramp, instead of coming from the crowd, which was weird. The three of them beat down Christian. The reason he is in my Fave 5 is because of this attack. It hints at a feud between him and Ambrose for the US title, which would be amazing. I can’t wait to see this gather pace. The two of them are certain to have some great matches!

The Shield deliver a beatdown to Christian – Source: World Wrestling Entertainment

Daniel Bryan: As expected, Goatface and Orton had a great wrestling match. All the dropkicks, frenzied offense and even a Shawn Michaels nip-up! I knew this guy was guaranteed to be on the list before the show even started. He is such a consistently good performer. Orton did a great job too, it has to be said. He delivered an emphatic superplex from the top rope, which was a main event highlight. The crowd were so hot for this match, but it’s hard to know when that’s been piped in or not. Bryan connected with a diving front kick off of the apron while Orton who was standing on the outside. Then the “flying goat” (in JBL’s words) hit his trademark suicide dive. Orton didn’t make it up and Bryan got the count out win. Bryan was pissed and got on the mic demanding that the referee re-start the match because he wouldn’t take a count-out win. The match went off the air and I guess the crowd got a dark match. Pretty good way to continue building this storyline. I just wish I knew if the crowd reactions were genuine or not.

[HONORARY MENTION: PAUL HEYMAN]: Despite not being a performer, Paul deserves a mention for his memorable interview with Rene. She was keen to pry about the whole Punk business, when he turned the questions around on her. He asked about her family, her exes and all of her personal business, proving the point that talking about personal issues on national television isn’t fun. He demanded she only ask about Curtis Axel from now on. Great, great work from Heyman as always!

So as I said before, a good show. Not incredible, but good. Pretty much zero complaints in my mind. Thanks a lot for checking out the weekly look at Smackdown. If you like to read about wrestling, hit Follow. If you liked this article, hit Like. If you want to talk, hit Comment.